Arriving at f&m...

I used to lead a pretty staid, conventional life. As a fairly typical professional with an Engineering degree and a PGDM from reputed Indian educational institutions, I joined this small start-up over a decade back and grew with the organization playing multiple roles in multiple geopgraphies. It's been an interesting journey. I've seen some parts of the world- worked in 14 different countries - and during the course of my work:

I have thoroughly enjoyed the places I visited and only occassionally enjoyed the travel-airports, airplanes, hotels etc.
I have thoroughly enjoyed a lot of the work that I actually did and only occassionally derived pleasure from seeing real tangible benefits of my work to others. (Hey, I'm just being truthful here. I could always have pretended otherwise or deluded myself into actually believing otherwise!).
I have thorughly enjoyed meeting people from different places and understanding their culture (while enlightening them about my own culture and hopefully destroying a few stereotypes which serve no purpose)
I have thoroughly enjoyed being exposed to different cuisines( I will never forget a particular salmon and avocado entree at a riverside restaurant in Melbourne!) and only occassionally cringed at having to sample something exquisitely exotic.

All this got me thinking.... How come I've seen so little of my own land? How come I know so little about many remarkable places closer home? Can I try and reduce my ignorance and at the same time work on eliminating the things that I didn't quite like about my peripatetic existence? Can I then build out experiences that would appeal as a package to other individuals?

Again, while leading this regular, salaried work life, I managed to take time off now and then to do some 'active' stuff that I always wanted to do. And even while doing so, I noticed a lot of young 'kids' coming out of college and joining work with that lean and hungry look and looking all worn out, jaded, out-of-breath and out-of-shape by their mid-20s.

All this got me thinking.... Can I try and do something to help us all become a slightly more active people? Can we help to build a culture that would go towards reversing the alarmingly increasing instances of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s suffering from stress induced illnesses, hypertension, type-2 diabetes, cholesterol surges, cardiac issues..... ? Sure, there are already all these gyms and health centers and such like. Thats not what I want to be doing..... those options already exist for people who choose to avail them. Can I get people excited about getting active in the great outdoors?

At the same time, can I also build out offerings that will excite the already fit and active individuals from all over the world

And then Sridhar and I started throwing ideas at each other- some outrageous and some even more so- and all these different threads started to come together and it has taken shape in what I call 'Active Tourism'. This is a very simple premise. ' Let us use the energy of the human body to walk/run/ bicycle along superb trails in fantastic locations which exemplify either our phenomenal heritage or our stunning natural beauty'. In the process we learn about our land and its history and we also learn about our own physical capabilities and how to extend them just a little bit more. At the very least, we promise you clean air to fill your lungs!

So come with us. Active is !

-Bharat